Bea Bonafini

“My work spirals out of a painting discourse, taking it for a ride through different worlds.”

Bea Bonafini (*1990) is an Italian artist, currently based in Paris and Rome. She works across painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and installations. Through her interdisciplinary practice, she has consistently challenged and transcended the boundaries of painting. This is, inter alia, what makes her fit so well to the Studio Talks Series. Bea has taken an impressive path as an emerging artist in the last years. I am more than happy that we had the chance to do this interview, which is about her current situation in Paris, her studies in London, about shapeshifting and immortality, about being open minded for the fluidity of things, it is about listening to podcasts and to Cardi B and Frank Ocean in the studio and it contains a very few words of German.

Ciao Bea, first of all, I have to say, your work is truly awesome and it makes me very happy that you're participating in this project and interview series.

Ciao Malte! I’m thrilled that you invited me to participate, thank you so much. 

How’s life right now, how are you coping with the lockdown situation? 

The second lockdown in Paris in November was quite tough psychologically, it was the start of winter and there was an atmosphere of dread and uncertainty. But as our studio complex (Poush) stayed open and the artists here could keep working in the studios, it gradually got a bit easier, and I avoided total isolation this way by being surrounded by many Parisian-based artists. 

I do understand that well, I think we are all sort of trying to deal with this new uncertainty and not be isolated too much. 
So far, all artists of the Studio Talks series are painters. You're also a painter – or I mean, you used to be - but you're constantly questioning painting in an impressive way. You’re working a lot with textiles, with ceramics, working sculpturally as well. Do you still consider yourself as a painter and what made you work in such a diverse way with multiple media?

I’d like to think of myself as a hybrid painter, but I prefer keeping the definitions open enough to blur expectations. Since 2013 I’ve loved widening the possibilities that can emerge from approaching multiple media using a painterly thought process, where colour and pictorial imagery are most important. I’d say that my work spirals out of a painting discourse, taking it for a ride through different worlds, decomposing and recomposing what defines painting as such.

You studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art in London – how important was the time at art school for you personally and what did you take away from those times in terms of experiences and learnings that were important for the time afterwards?

Both art schools are structured according to categories. I chose to align myself to the Painting departments whilst pushing against their prescribed parameters. I learnt to defy definitions in search for hybridity, and to distort the expectations within these categories. I felt a sense of wonder and relief when Gary Stevens, one of my tutors at the Slade, introduced me to the world of performance art. It wasn’t paid much attention while I was studying there, so we created space for it across several events which gave voice to mine and other students’ need to express hybrid ideas.

You are not only a hybrid as an artist, but also in your way of life in terms of the places where you have already lived. You moved to different countries a lot in your life, already as a kid, and you later lived and worked at many places, like Rome, London, Paris, … and you did some residencies abroad: what do these changes of location do to you as a person, as an artist and how much does the environment influence your work?

Changing environments destabilises the parameters I build for myself. It removes my safety net, my habitual way of doing things, and instead forces me to rebuild a practice that shifts according to the possibilities of the situation. 

Currently you live and work in Paris. What do you love about your studio here? 

I’m on the 16th floor of an old office building. I love hovering above Paris, above its traffic and its rooftops. It’s so soothing to see the horizon and the changes in the sky every day, and the light is brilliant. I also have some great studio mates so the mood is always lifted when I walk into the studio!

That sounds amazing. Here in Paris you also work with the Gallery Chloe Salgado. How did the connection to Chloe come about?

Chloe reached out to me asking for a studio visit while I was in London a few years ago. She’d just opened her new gallery on rue de Saintonge and wanted to work with emerging London-based artists. I visited her first shows and liked the fresh energy she brought to the Parisian art scene, so we had our first solo show together at the end of 2019.

I’m German, so I guess I have to ask you about your German roots. You were born in Bonn, Germany, in 1990. When did you leave Germany and what is your relationship to the country of your birth? And btw: Sprichst du auch ein wenig deutsch?  

Ein bißchen!!! It’s super rusty but I studied it for a few years hoping to move to Germany one day. I left Bonn when I was 1 year old, and spent a summer in Berlin in my early 20s. I heard so many great stories about the art community that was migrating there, the open mindedness, and how much more relaxed life was there. Maybe one day my german will come in handy again! 

Whenever you’ll be in Berlin, please let me know! The art scene there is still very exciting. But back to your work….   
At “La Berlugane” in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, in the south of France, you created an incredibly amazing tapestry, ‘Rippling’.
You once mentioned that this work was inspired by concepts in psychology that consider immortality and the afterlife through the ways we impact others during our lives. Can you explain how such concepts manifest themselves in your work?

I consider shapeshifting a way to shift our perspective away from our typically human-centered perception of life to one that incorporates non-human beings, things, behaviours…  Rippling is a piece where forms act like many pebbles falling into a fluid. The presence of each form creates waves that interconnect and overlap. Transformations happen through overlapping chains of actions and reactions. When transposed to psychology, this way of thinking is applied to how we incorporate fragments of otherness into our sense of self. The people we cross paths with, those closest to us, our pets, the trees in our local park, the objects that surround us - everything in our ecosystem leaves a trace in us and shapes us throughout our entire lives. We’re not sealed and impervious beings. In this way immortality can be seen as the invisible chain reactions, the rippling we create and receive for as long as we exist.  

What I love about your art is how it incorporates, shapes and changes the space in which it takes place - what does space and architecture mean to you and your work? 

You can think of my work as an octopus - soft materiality that contracts and expands depending on the space it has available. It’s this dialogue that creates another layer of intention to a piece.

This is a wonderful description of your work - like it very much! Your work clearly goes beyond limitations of certain media or genres, for me also your carpets are still paintings in a way, with a special feel and texture – I mean, I still perceive them as paintings – is this maybe a big misunderstanding from my side? 

No, you’re right!

What do you love about working with fabrics? 

They’re flexible and fluid.

Your work appears in various shapes. When did you start to overcome the shape of the rectangular canvas and why? 

In 2013 I worked collaboratively with another artist and friend of mine, and we both had a background as painters. It was such a joy to turn painting on canvas into painting on a moving body, or into painted fabrics that were sewn and turned into sculptures or costumes for performances. 

I would have loved to experience the shells you created for your solo show "Twin Waves" at Operativa in Rome. Did those stained porcelain conches make any sounds – what exactly could you hear?

I created The Sound of Twin Waves, a sound piece that enveloped the installation of porcelain conches in the underground crypt of the gallery, echoing through the chambers. It’s my first sound work, and I used my own voice, distorting and multiplying it to create a haunting and otherworldly soundscape. I chanted phrases from my own texts or things that inspired the show, like “our lover’s lips on ours, our lover’s liver on ours…” or “twin waves surfing on each other’s crest, the synchronized transfer of energy…” hummed, whispered, repeated words.

That sounds beautiful. A shame I couldn't be there. I wonder who or what inspires you. Who are your all-time-favorite artists? And who did you discover recently? 

I recently discovered Naudline Pierre, a New York based artist who paints very personal, almost spiritual and saturated paintings of angels and fallen bodies. They’re visceral and sexual. Some big inspirations for me have been Enrico David, Louise Bourgeois, Artemisia Gentileschi, Francesco Clemente and Chagall.

Oh yes, I saw some of Naudline's work - unfortunately only on photos - and wow, so so good! And one more thing in terms of inspiration: what kind of music do you listen to when you’re working at your studio? Or do you prefer podcasts?

I listen to many podcasts, like Unlocking Us, The Great Women Artists or Natalie Hanes Stands Up for the Classics. Music spans so many genres, but Cardi B, Frank Ocean and Stevie Wonder are at the top. 

Interesting, I can imagine Frank Ocean very well to your work. How cool would it be, if when we look at art we would all hear exactly the same thing as the artist did when he made it? Okay sorry, I digress again haha. What’s next? What projects or exhibitions are coming up?

I have to be incredibly flexible this year, everything is in flux! I’ll have a final show in June at the British School at Rome, a solo show at Renata Fabbri in Milan, and several group shows in Paris, London and Florence, dates are fluid! 

Sounds great, exciting times ahead - and yes, you’re so right, everything is in flux! Same here, I feel you. Thank you so much for the interview, Bea! 

Thank you too, Malte!